Concrete words that are readily imagined are better remembered than abstract words. Theoretical explanations for this effect either claim a dual coding of concrete words in the form of both a verbal and a sensory code (dual-coding theory), or a more accessible semantic network for concrete words than for abstract words (context-availability theory). However, the neural mechanisms of improved me...

On the basis of previous studies revealing a processing advantage of concrete words over abstract words, the current study aimed to further explore the influence of concreteness on the integration of novel words into semantic memory with the event related potential (ERP) technique. In the experiment during the learning phase participants read two-sentence contexts and inferred the meaning of no...

words is governed by the distributional principle. Words that frequently occur in the same contexts come to have similar semantic representations because they generate similar predictions. 3. The units in the hub make no strong distinction between concrete and abstract words. Concrete and abstract words can be represented as similar to one another if they occur in similar contexts (e.g., journe...

The concreteness effect occurs in both normal and language-disordered populations. Research suggests that abstract and concrete concepts elicit differing neural activation patterns in healthy young adults, but this is undocumented in persons with aphasia (PWA). Three PWA and three age-matched controls were scanned using fMRI while processing abstract and concrete words. Consistent with current ...

Concrete words are more quickly recognized than abstract words (Bransford & McCarrell, 1974; Paivio, 1986). Different theories of semantic processing argue that either there are more brain areas that process concrete than abstract words (bilateral versus unilateral; Paivio, 1986), or that the same brain areas process both kinds but that concrete words have more context associated with them (Bra...

There are a number of long-standing theories on how the cognitive processing of abstract words, like 'life', differs from that of concrete words, like 'knife'. This review considers current perspectives on this debate, focusing particularly on insights obtained from patients with language disorders and integrating these with evidence from functional neuroimaging studies. The evidence supports t...

Words representing concrete concepts are processed more quickly and efficiently than words representing abstract concepts. Concreteness effects have also been observed in studies using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The aim of this study was to examine concrete and abstract words using both reaction time (RT) and ERP measurements to determine (1) at what point in the stream of cognitive...

Relative to abstract words, concrete words typically elicit faster response times and larger N400 and N700 event-related potential (ERP) brain responses. These effects have been interpreted as reflecting the denser links to associated semantic information of concrete words and their recruitment of visual imagery processes. Here, we examined whether there are ERP differences between concrete and...

BACKGROUND: The significance of imageability and concreteness as factors for lexical tasks in aphasic individuals is under debate. No previous treatment studies have looked specifically at training abstract words compared to concrete for improved lexical retrieval in patients with chronic aphasia. AIM: The goal of the present study was to determine the efficacy of a treatment for lexical retrie...

Over the past five decades, psycholinguists have uncovered robust differences in the processing of concrete and abstract words. One of these findings is that it is easier for people to generate possible contexts for concrete words than for abstract words; that is, concrete words seem to have higher "context availability" (CA). It is not clear why this difference exists, but some have suggested ...